The University Diaries

Regularly I get questions on Instagram regarding working and earning money whilst being at university, especially when it comes to working alongside placement. Here is how I have made and continue to make enough money to survive university. Student Finance If you are taking out a tuition fee loan then you may as well get a maintenance loan too. My lecturer described student loan repayments as a tax as you are unlikely to ever pay your student loan back fully, and you only repay a small percentage each month. I started my first year without a maintenance loan, and decided in roughly March that I could do with it. I applied for the last term and to my surprise, received the whole yearly amount in a one-off payment! Since then I have used my parents information to receive a means-tested loan, however I do not receive much unfortunately. My parents earn enough money that I receive very little maintenance loan, and as I am not supplemented by my parents and I do not live with them, I hav...

One thing that is the same for almost everyone is that you need savings to buy a house. Back in the day, you did not actually need any money to get a mortgage, but things have changed. When it comes to buying a house, the bigger the deposit you have means the lower your monthly repayment and/or the greater the house value you can afford. Moving costs money. Every aspect of it: the literal moving of the furniture, fees, checks, repairs etc. It is not cheap and some money will feel as though it is going straight down the drain, so when you have your deposit saved, some of that will be required to go towards house buying fees, so you always need to save as much as possible to put yourself in the best position Introduction This is a personal account of how I have saved my money. Currently all of my debit and savings accounts are with Nationwide Building Society, and I have one credit card with Tesco Bank. Over the years I have compared different banks and building societies, and I ha...

This is the first in my new series: The House Diaries! Anyone who knows me vaguely probably knows how ready I am to move my bum into my own house. I have probably been ready to move out since before I went to university, and every year since then I am more and more ready. I struggle living at home with my parents due to the lack of space, freedom and privacy, and for my mental health and well-being, it is really clear that I need to live in my own space doing my own life things. To start out, I am a university student, student paramedic and have multiple jobs although currently (early 2019) I am in a rubbish position because I am in the process of changing jobs, but my old job finished a month ago and its taken months for my new job to start so I am majorly struggling for income. I am in a long term relationship with my boyfriend who is in the process of qualifying with a teacher and he currently has a teaching bursary and a contract ready for next year. We are both quite low mainten...